Iron by Zero
by S093
Summary: Someone somewhere screwed up somehow.
1. Chapter 1

_Iron by Zero_

The roar of cannons sounded over head as the two fleets of airships clashed admits swirling clouds of rain and hail. Added to the fray were the dragon knights dipping and weaving amongst the ships defending against their counterparts or trying to attack the enemy ships. It was beautiful in a way, a way that Lousie Francois de la Valerie had become all to accustomed to over the past two years.

Shouts drew her attention back to the ground, and her own current state of lying on her back in the mud with a pounding headache. She pulled herself to a sitting position and looked around. She could see the bodies of numerous mages and commoner troops around her, a sight she had long grown used to. And beyond them she could see them.

Black-brown smoke wafting of their foul bodies, dark red eyes glowing in the dark. Every step corrupting the ground upon which they tread. She rolled over to get herself out of their sight, for every bit of good that would do, the cursed things seemed to be able to pick out people no matter how well hidden.

She crawled forwards slightly to get a better view while fumbling for her wand within her robes. If she was lucky she would get one free shot before the rest would be after her. Peeking over a small ridge she takes a long look at the group in front of her, at least a few dozen if not more of them. All of them armed carrying anything from swords and axes to muskets and books. Some mounted on mounts as foul as they were, and others dismounted.

Thankfully none were moving towards her, yet. So she had some time to plan and prepare something. But even then there wasn't much she could actually do to a group that large, still even if she could just distract them at the right moment...

Then she spotted the mage cloaks in the distance, if she timed it right they could get the drop on this group, and maybe take them out. She mages easily spotted the group of things, but she didn't know if she was here. So she waited until the mages were almost to them before standing up and casting. "Feu." She felt the willpower flow out of her and through her focus.

Unfortunately no fire was produced, despite all the years she had poured into her magic trying to get it to work right. What did happen was arguably more effective than a mere fireball. An explosion ripped through the ranks of the things causing many of them to disintegrate into shadow stuff, while those that weren't destroyed were knocked back by the blast.

However those that weren't caught in the blast where quick to spot her and as a mob they charged, the few who hadn't spotted her following those who had. "Feu." Another explosion blasted several of them to shadows while staggering the advance, but it wasn't as large as the one before, so it removed less of them.

Then one of their own mages sent a fire spell at her, she tried to avoid it by stepping back. But only succeeded at tripping over something, causing her to land painfully on her behind. Though she did manage to avoid being hit directly by the fire spell, so it wasn't all bad. But even being this close she still felt her skin heat up from the spell, any closer and she would have been burned badly or even killed. 

And they were still closing, but she had distracted them enough that the mages could attack them from behind with impunity. Their attacks would never be fast enough to save her though, the things were to close, almost on top of her now. Fire and wind spells flew at the backs of the things, breaking them into shadow with ease. At the very least the foul creatures of shadow would not walk away from taking her life. She wondered what her mother would think of this.

She managed one last spell before the remnants of her willpower vanished. So this was it. The horde was mere meters away, she could not escape and the mages would not be able to save her.

Then a miracle happened. Blue fire erupted from the middle of the advancing horde, catching them off guard, and drawing their attention away from her, to the point where they weren't bothering her anymore. Then the fire died away, leaving nothing but after images in her eyes.

She tried to get up to see what had happened but the pain from the burns forced her back down. She wonders what had saved her from imminent death, and she offers a silent prayer for whatever it was.

Then the horde charges towards where the flames had been letting out a blood chilling screech while charging. Then a roar that shakes the air itself drowns out the screeching for a moment. A from where the blue flames were comes a harsh yellow light, reaching up over the horde and reflecting against the rain.

Then a massive black shape leapt into the sky, wings spreading out before retracting back to the body. Then they swept back out wards, sending shock-waves through the air.

A moment later they reach the horde, reducing it to little more than fragments of shadow floating about.

Then with a crash the thing drops back to the ground, sending dust and solid shadow floating into the air a bit before the rain removes it.

Slowly she picks herself up, doing her best to work through the pain and drenched clothes. Slowly she makes her way towards the thing.

Her first thought upon seeing it is dragon, but dragons don't stand on their hind legs like humans, and she didn't know of any than had ebony-black scales. Though everything else about it resembled a dragon, from the way the scales were patterned to the shape of the wings. Even it's head looked like a slightly fatter version of that which was found on a common fire drake.

And speaking of the head, she followed the 'dragon's gaze to see a group of the things approaching, these ones wore fancier gear than the ones that she had seen before. And they were coming closer.

Instinctively she took a few steps back, insuring that each step was on solid footing.

Then the dragon bellowed, a deep sound that shook her very soul. "I am Dheginsea, king of Dragons. And you foul creatures will end here, my kin shall be avenged." It almost sounded like it spoke, but that was stupid because dragons were just beasts and couldn't speak.

Then the dragon reared back its head, blue fire gathering in its mouth, before unleashing it towards the gathered things.

The blast hit them, turning all but one to scattered shadows. The one that did survive sent shivers down her spine just by looking at it. It almost looked human, save for the very black skin it had. Then it spoke something she could not understand before raising the book it had in its hand causing darkness to flow to the book. The dragon was readying more blue fire in its mouth.

And all she, Louise Francois de la Blanc de la Vallerie could do was watch.


	2. Chapter 2

_Iron by Zero dot Two_

Validar let out a sigh of relief as he sat down on the chair in his study, then looked down at his mangled leg. An injury that would never heal, all thanks to that damn dragon kin, and it wasn't even the only injury he received, merely the worst. Though thankfully the rest would heal, even if they took some time. He had gone to supervise the conquest of this 'haglekaneia', the place would serve as a breeding ground for more Risen, not to mention another route to 'that' world. The only place that was actually holding the tides of Risen back to the point where he was sure that if he didn't keep up the pressure they would come back through the portals to him.

That would be an unmitigated disaster.

Though he supposed that damn dragon kin counted as well, where had the 'haglekanians' been hiding him. He certainly wasn't from this particular world, Tiki and the other one had very different colour patterns to their scales, not to mention significantly brighter colours.

And then there had been the blue fire, a power on par with Grimia's. That was truly troublesome and worrying, the dragon kin could be the source, but that didn't seem likely, he wouldn't have survived if that was the case. Rather than actually bringing the fight to a near draw. No they were most likely the servant of another, but the question was who? It was not Naga, Grimia had seen to that, and he not encountered any other actual deities across the worlds, so that meant it was one of which he had no knowledge of.

Which was a problem. An unknown meant he had no idea where to strike to remove them. And given that they had an active servant, even with the injuries he had inflicted on that particular servant there was nothing stopping them from simply creating another.

They needed to found as soon as possible and removed.

And the dragon kin had given him a bit of a clue, it was on one of the worlds he had attacked, so that narrowed it down somewhat. Now he just had to narrow it down world by world.

But that could wait for the time being, he had several other things to take care off, mainly reorganizing the supply lines in light of the damage done by that damn dragon kin. He needed that extra line to keep the pressure up on that world, which was definitely not where the dragon kin had come from. Maybe he could work backwards... No that had clearly been some kind of transportation spell used, albeit one he had never seen before.

Which left him right back at the start. He let out a sigh, he was going to run himself ragged at this rate.

Carefully he got out of his chair and moved over to the window to gaze out over the fields of ships that were currently under construction. From the plain wooden galleons copied from the 'halks', to imposing steel sided monstrosities, experiments to see about breaking the stalemate on that world. Thousands of slaves and their grimiel overseers crawled over the field, building the ships of his war fleet, the new backbone of his risen army.

And out beyond the field were the foundries with even more slaves that produced the weapons that his army wielded. Everything from simple axes to the modified 'halk' muskets and everything in between. And then beneath all of that, collecting the misery of the slaves were the pits where the heart of his army was created, the risen themselves. An unending tide of shadow beings at his command.

One that had been more than enough to subdue many worlds, and work on subduing many others. Save for that one annoyance, that one world where his numbers didn't seem to mean anything. He had been forced to change tactics, going for high quality durable troops rather than sheer numbers, just to keep them from forcing their way back through the portals and to him. And given how adept they were, he wouldn't put it pass them to figure out a way to rest control of the network from him.

If only Grimia had not suffered so badly at the hands of Naga in the last confrontation, and even though the other deity was no more, Grimia was little more than a shell. Alive in body only.

Scowling he left the room, his gate uneven due to his injured leg. He decided to pay a visit to his favourite prisoner.

He arrived at the cell slower than was normal, he really needed to come up with a new way to move around, it was quite trying, not to mention that the pain was annoying. He pushed open the doors and smiled as he gazed upon his prisoner, the last exalt.

Emmeryn of Yilese. He took immense satisfaction in her downfall. "Ahh, I appear to have forgotten my manners, _your grace._" Emmeryn's head slowly rose, her glaring eyes met his. "That look is unbecoming of you, has anyone ever told you that?" She just shot him another glare, to which he chuckled. "Defiant as ever I see."

"But I wonder." He moved over to one of the shelves lining the room, the one with several skulls set on it. He picked up one in particular, nicely polished, the one he had taken no small measure of pride in removing it from it's original owner. "Your _brother_ has certainly been quiet these days, I do wonder what was wrong." She just glared at him even more. "Oh that's right, you traded his life for yours, coward that you are." He set the skull back into its place, next to another less polished one. "They do make such a nice couple don't they, even in death you can't separate your brother from his whore. Oh wait, they were married weren't they, slipped the mind."

The chains rattled as she squirmed a bit in an amusing attempt to lash out at him, to which he just laughed. "Of course, you were never satisfied with just one person were you, no you had your entire guard corps to ply with. I wonder if they were selected just for that purpose, it would certainly explain why they were so easy. Barely even capable of slowing down my Risen."

He picked up another skull as she continued to glare death threats at him. "Of course things might have gone better if you hadn't of seduced your brothers tactician, I never did intend to keep the traitor around anyways. Why they might not have sent him off to get killed to spare your pathetic life. And who knows, your brother may have actually been able to beat me, unlike you."

He grinned at her while he placed the skull back in its place. "Now where did I put that last one." He turned to the one empty shelf in the room. "Ah yes, she's not here is she, we never did find your sister. Such a shame that the family has to be separated like this. Won't you tell me where she is so I can reunite your family." She opened her mouth than quickly closed it. Well so much for that idea. "A pity then, such a tragedy that you insist on keeping your family separate like this. I have the power to bring you all back together."

"Power, from a cripple like you. I see someone finally showed you your place monster." Her voice interrupted him and stopped his line of thought.

"You would be wise to remember who is in control here." How dare she insult him, after he had reduced her kingdom to little more than rubble. She merely gave out a huff and turned her head so she was no longer looking at him. "Very well, you will need to be taught your place I see. Though if you give me the information I want, I may consider rewarding you." He waited there for a moment to see if she responded.

But when she didn't he left the room, closing the heavy steel door behind him. A bit harder with one bad leg than it had been. He couldn't let that woman get to him, she was entirely in his control, nothing she did would have an impact on anything unless he let it.

Slowly he began to make his way back to his study, and back to the problems that were plaguing his conquests and to arrange for Emmeryns punishment. He had barely made it more than a few steps before Avera came up to him, her face covered in a grin as always. "Trying to get her to tell you were her little sister is, and by the looks of things you didn't have any luck. We should really dispose of her, she is never going to tell us anything."

"Unfortunately she is our only lead on the whereabouts of the fire emblem, so unless your own investigations have turned up anything we will need to keep her alive for now. Have a few grimiel pay her a visit and do what ever they wish, so long as she remains alive and able to speak. She isn't quite broken yet."

"You know I could do just as well as several of those lugs." Aversa placed the end of one of her fingers on her lip.

"That would be giving her what she wants, though once we have gotten what we want from her, I have no qualms about turning her over to you. Of course under the condition that I can get her back if I need her to get information from someone else."

"You needed bother than, I can always pick out a few slaves to participate in my experiments, and they are oh so much more available."

"Good, good. I don't really want to keep her alive after she's given up what I want anyways." He didn't bother waiting for her reply and instead hobbled on ahead. He didn't notice the smile vanish from Aversa's face.

Emmeryn tried the chains that held her fastened to the roof and walls of her cell, but as always they didn't give. She wished she knew how long she had been kept here, but she would probably despair at how long it actually was. But at least Lissa was still safe, and with her the one thing Validar needed. Even in his fortress surrounded by the skulls of those she cared about, she could at the very least she could deny him that.

And again she offered an unvoiced prayer. 'Please watch over her, my love.'

**Okay good news and bad news.**

**Bad news, this has been discontinued.  
**

**Good news, the basic premise has been folded into another story I'm working on.**


End file.
